Credit Where Due
By Julia Cottle
An elderly man has a secret he’d kill to be able to tell.
Assisting an elderly family member to move from the home they’ve known for years can be difficult in the best of circumstances. It’s worse when the decision to move is not their own. That much worse when the building is slated for demolition. Or, when the parent refuses to go peacefully. And has a bone to pick…and a rifle.
Frank, the elderly—and beyond cantankerous—protagonist of Shawn Davis’ Credit Where Due is not about to go peacefully. His son, Cal, rues the decision to bring his girlfriend Trish along with him, as the old man fiercely lashes out at them both.
No, Frank’s not willing to go anywhere, except back to that fateful day in November, 1963 when JFK was assassinated. And, he’s determined to bring Cal and Trish with him.
On a bare wall, Abraham Zapruder’s film of the JFK assassination plays on a continuous loop.
In a wheelchair watching the movie, FRANK, 73, disheveled. Cal and Trish watch for a moment.
JFK passing by in the motorcade.
Frank follows the car on the screen with a RIFLE in his arms.
JFK leans forward, grabs his throat, JACKIE looks over to him.
FRANK
Wait for it.
Lightning flashes through the boarded windows. Frank recoils his arms as if he shot the rifle.
Frank has been playing out the scene on the screen and in his head for over 50 years. He seethes that secrecy still shrouds the identity of the second shooter and that he never received recognition for his role in the plot.
What’s a son to do? Under the circumstances, whatever it takes to appease a rifle-wielding father.
Where Credit Due is an excitingly complex, albeit disturbing, mix of a crazy old man’s resentments with real-life political intrigue that will engage audiences in ways they had never imagined and probably will never forget.